S

Scoot/Scooter - Slang term for a motorcycle.

Scooter Trash - Any Biker

Scotchlite Reflective Material - A thin, light weight membrane, mounted between the face fabric and the lining. It is Waterproof, Windproof, and Breathable.

Screamin' Night Hog - A biker when traveling long distances, prefers to ride at night (avoiding the heavy traffic and usually at high speeds).

Shadow - Any Honda Shadow

Shaft drive - As an alternative to chain or belt drive to transfer power to the rear wheel, shaft drive is the solution that requires least maintenance, but is also possibly the heaviest solution. On some bikes there is a notable elevation effect when accelerating.

Sharing - When a cage driver passes you in your lane or otherwise tries to share the lane.

Shiny Side Up (Keep The Shiny Side Up) - Drive Safe, Don't Lay the Bike Down. Friendly parting expression.

Shooters on Scooters - motorcycle cop

Short - Low Final Drive Gear Ratio

Shotgun Pipes - This style of exhaust had the two pipes ending straight and together, giving the appearance of a double barreled shot gun.

Shovel - Shovelhead - The Shovelhead engine (V-Twin, produced from 1966 - 1984)

Showed Him My Wheel - Riding behind someone so close that he saw your wheel beside him.

Silverhair Hiway Patrol (SHip) - Bluehairs that attempt to enforce a maximum speed limit of 35mph no matter what the posted limit is. Generally followed by a small parade of vehicles, they often speed up upon encountering a passing zone.

SIPDE - An MSF term used to help you remember what to do when making judgments in traffic - Scan, Identify, Predict, Decide, Execute

Sissy Bar - Passenger Backrest

Sit on the gas - When you sit on the gas tank (located at the upper front section of the bike) with your hands on the throttle and brakes either at a stop or while moving.

Skid Lid - Slang term for a helmet.

Skin - New paint job

Slabbing it - Taking the Interstate Highway

Slam or Slammer - 1. Jockey Shift. 2. To lower a bike's suspension (or in extreme cases remove it entirely), also a remark made to someone with intent to make comments, sometimes of a rude nature, to elicit laughs from those who hear/read it.

Sled - Slang term for a motorcycle.

Slider - the throttle throat opening mechanism on a CV carb controlled by a diaphragm & Vacuum.

Slinky Riders - Riders in a group ride who consistently fail to maintain interval with the bike to their front are "slinky riders" and are a severe hazard to others.

Slug - Piston

Smell Me Bars - Ape Hangers

SNAFU - After attempting to fix something that wasn't broken in the first place and ya can't put it back together correctly, you have a Situation Normal All F**ked Up

Sneakers - Tires as in "I got a new rear sneaker, or a new pair of sneakers"

SO - Significant Other (usually refers to someone's wife or husband)

Soft Tail - Refers to a mono-shock swingarm bike, has the rigid or hardtail styling yet full rear suspension capability. One major company utilizes a play-on version of the word to describe their line-up of this style; the Softail.

Softail - A motorcycle frame whose suspension is hidden, making it resemble a hard tail

Software - What your back warmer presses into your back.

Solid - Stand-up, good people, trustworthy

Spanny - 2-stroke expansion chamber

Spark Plugs (or Plugs) - A device that lights an electric spark within the combustion chamber to burn the fuel in the cylinder.

Sparkin' or Sparking the Pavement - This is a term used when a rider would lean their bike over far enough to drag the bottoms, usually of their bikes floor boards or maybe an exhaust pipe and cause sparks to fly at night from rubbing the pavement. i.e. "He had that bike so low to the ground in the turn it was Sparkin or Sparking the Pavement."

Splicing - Driving in the narrow passage between oncoming cages and parked cages when normally cars take turns going through. Very common on rural and residential roads in Germany.

Split Tail - a female passenger or your squeeze.

Spoke - A rod that connects the hub and rim on a wheel.

Sportbike - The racy light weight mega-fast bikes with full fairing, comfort is not taken into consideration on these bikes rather they are made for hard acceleration, quick and responsive manuevering, and rapid stopping power.

Sport Standard - An attempt to declassify sport bikes, essentially they are fairing-less sport bikes. They fall between a Sport Bike and a Standard, with some racy styling and a little more upright riding stance.

Sport-touring - Motorcycles that go under this category are a compromise between powerful sports bikes and touring bikes. These bikes often have good aerodynamics and lots of power, making the top models of this category the fastest bikes around.

Squid - Acronym, SQUirrely kID. 1. In reference to younger MC riders with little respect to posted speed limit laws, self safety or safety of others. 2. Inexperienced newcomer, someone trying to ride beyond his skill level with arms flailing (like a squid) to try not to fall. This may be just a Southern term. 3. Stupidly Quick, Underdressed, Imminantly Dead. 4 Any SportBike Rider - seems this term got twisted along the way and has many meanings. 5 Sportbike riders who wear tennis shoes or flip flops, shorts, tshirts, etc. on their nice shiny new sport bikes. 6 Anyone that rides without all proper gear , rides recklessly, or rides beyond their limits.

Stand-Up - dependable, can be counted on.

Stand up - When you raise your body or 'stand' while riding your bike.

Standard - A more upright styled bike, with little attention to styling. Generally more powerful than cruisers but not anything like a sport bike.

State Patrol Formation - Staggered group riding formation - L-R-L-R-L-R...

Statey - State cop

Static - Harassment by law enforcement

Stitching a line - Meaning to get by traffic quick and safe.

Stay Vertical - Stay upright, don't crash

Steeler - See Steelership

Steelership - The local motorcycle dealership

Steering Aids - Ruts in the road formed by heavy trucks that try to steer your bike for you.

Steering damper - A steering damper is mounted to a motorcycle's frame and fork to prevent situations like a wobble.

Steering Head - 1. The tubular section at the front of a frame where the triple trees mount to. 2. The place where the fork is connected to the frame and which specifies the steering angle.

Steering lock - A lock that enables one to lock the fork at an extreme right or left to prevent or hinder theft.

Stewartized - When some Bikers take great pains and expense to color coordinate their bike colors, leathers, helmet, boots, gloves. Named after Martha Stewart.

Stick it - What a cop would do to check for Straight Pipes is stick his night-stick in the end of the exhaust pipe and if it didn't stop and went all the way in, ya got a coupon for straight pipes (a fix it ticket).

Stinky Finger - priming the AMAL carb on early Triumphs from fuel seeping out the button.

Stock - A motorcycle set up to OEM specifications with no alterations

Stoppie - The art of stopping a motorcycle and having the rear wheel lift off the ground, the reverse of a wheelie. Also called an endo. 2. Aviation of the rear wheel in an effort to stop quickly

Straight Pipes - An exhaust system with no baffles inside thus the exhaust travels straight through unrestricted. (very loud)

Straight-shooter - Tells it like it is, no b.s., talks the truth, speaks their mind

Stretch - A chopper term for increasing the neck rake of a motorcycle by extending the length of the frame's front downtubes, which is that part of the frame between the neck and the front motor mounts. Stretching is a chopper modification dating from the 1960's. Its effect was to raise the fork neck, increasing the degree of rake, and allow for the use of a long, extended fork without significantly raising the engine and drivetrain (and bike's center-of-gravity) high into the air. The bike retained a low, long look, high in the center, front to back, and handled relatively well

Stretching out - When the swing arm that holds the back tire is pulled or 'stretched out.' It makes your bike look longer and it makes it hard to pop wheelies.

Stroke - (as in bore/stroke) The distance traveled in either direction of by an piston or rod in an engine. Do not mix up with stroke as in 4-stroke.

Stuck - Sudden Engine Seizure - This also refers to a Stuck Piston which will cause a Gradual Engine Seizure, where the bike will loose power and need to be pulled over to cool-off. i.e. The engine was overheated and/or wasn't broke in properly or the clearances were set wrong and the engine Stuck a Piston. This canhappen if the piston to wall clearance is set to close on a forged piston which expands more and faster than a cast piston and can seize the enginewhen there is no more room/clearance for a forged piston's expansion.

Suicide Shift - Suicide Clutch - An early-style gear shift mechanism. Unlike modern motorcycles, early motorcycles used a foot-actuated clutch and the gear shifting was done with the rider's hand via a long gear shift knob that was connected directly to the transmission (much like a manual transmission on a car). Because the rider had to remove one of his hands from the handlebars in order to shift - a dangerous prospect given that most of the thoroughfares of the day were rutted, unpaved dirt roads or brick and cobblestone streets - many people felt that motorcycle riders were literally "taking their lives into their own hands" … hence the term, "suicide shift".

Suck to the Bulls - Talking friendly with law enforcement. (best way to talk to them).

Suckin' leather - About the same as Pucker Factor.

Super-motard - A motorcycle category which defines urbanly designed cross or enduro bikes.

Suspension - The system of springs, shock absorbers, or similar devices connection the axels to the frame of a motor cycle. Designed to reduced unwanted motion transmitted from the riding surface.

Super Slab - Interstate

Sweep - The last (and most experienced) rider in a group ride.

Swingarm - The rear portion of a bike that the rear wheel mounts to, a pivoting structure that moves up and down with the rear suspension.

Swoop - To take a road trip. e.g. I took a swoop over to any town or lets go a swoop to any town.